ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Jul 2024
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Constellation seeks rezone for property adjacent to Illinois plant
While no development details have been released, Constellation is asking to rezone 658.8 acres of land it owns around the Byron nuclear plant in Illinois for possible long-term use.
R. Austin Freeman, Thomas Martin, Elwyn Roberts, Travis W. Knight (Univ of South Carolina)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 605-611
Uranium Silicide (U3Si2) is being evaluated as a fuel for use in light water reactors as its desirable thermophysical properties suggest an improvement over UO2 with respect to accident tolerance, However, much is still unknown about the in-reactor performance of U3Si2, making an accurate assessment of the fuel challenging. To better understand the behavior of U3Si2 across a wide range of possible environments, high temperature compressive creep testing has been performed on U3Si2 pellets. Using the combination of constant stress and constant temperature testing, a numerical model was developed that can predict both primary and secondary creep rates under a wide range of temperature and stress conditions. This model was implemented in BISON, a coupled multi-physics finite element nuclear fuel performance code, to simulate the performance of U3Si2 under a range of reactor conditions and analyze the effect of creep on fuel behavior from startup through pellet-clad mechanical interaction (PCMI). These models indicate that while thermal and irradiation volumetric effects are dominant during normal operation, under extreme stresses and temperatures creep can become a significant factor. Specifically, under PCMI creep was found to have a noticeable impact on the rate of stress change in the cladding and could extend the lifetime of the cladding by months.